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"The Club looks so festive," Tracy said with a soft smile as she sipped at her coffee. Brian just rolled his eyes and scoffed. "We should take it down, since Valentine's day was yesterday, but it's always good to celebrate love."
"There's love, Tracy, and then there's whatever Jason Brown has done to my club."
What Jason had done to his club was put up pink and red hearts everywhere. He'd left little packages of chocolate around for people, and packs of Love Heart sweets, and there were pretty pink and red decorations everywhere. Since the American practically oozed love and positivity anyway, he really hadn't changed for the "holiday" season. The skaters were lucky that Valentine's Day had fallen on their one day off the week so that they could all enjoy the day with their loved ones, in person or digitally.
"Did you have a good day yesterday?" Tracy asked as she swirled the coffee around her purple wisteria mug. "I think I probably had the best day out of anyone in the world."
"Oh?" Brian raised an eyebrow at her as he sipped at his own sweet caffeinated nectar. "Don't challenge the kids like that. They'll be all ready to fight you on that, what with them all being so competitive and everything."
Sadly for Brian, when they opened the door to the break room in the Cricket Club, the two coaches were faced with several skaters that were all wearing their determined and competitive faces. And two coaches.
"Hello all our students," Brian said slowly and carefully, "and Javi and Ghislain; why are you all gathered outside the break room looking ready to burn down the ISU?"
"Because we heard you two saying that you had the best day of anyone in the world yesterday," Yuzuru started, getting cut off by Brian.
"I didn't. Tracy did--"
"And we want to prove that we had better days."
The two coaches exchanged a look and, after years of working alongside each other, they rolled their eyes at the same time. Knowing their students, they were going to get absolutely zero peace and quiet until they let them have their little competition. So Brian took a deep sigh, mentally questioned why he ever decided to coach anyone to start with, and nodded to the lounge.
"Go on then. We'll have a little competition about who had the best Valentine's Day or who got the best Valentine's Day gift."
Javier snuck into the break room and made himself a steaming mug of coffee before he settled beside Yuzuru on the sofa. The Japanese skater sniffed at the drink before he pulled a face, tugging Javi into a kiss before he tainted his mouth with the liquid brimstone.
"I'll go first then," Tracy said with a smile. She sipped at her own coffee and smiled down into her mug. "My husband and I took a walk together by the Quay and had lunch out. Then we came home and made dinner together before we watched a movie. No gifts. We just wanted to spend and enjoy the day together."
"Awww, Mama Tracy's Valentine's Day sounds so cute!" Katya's sunshine smile lit up her face before she held up her necklace. "My boyfriend couldn't spend the day with me so he got me a heart-shaped locket with photos of us and Emika." She opened it up and showed Tracy. The older smiled and raised an eyebrow at the new ring on her hand.
"And he got you that too?"
"Yep!" Katya's smile grew and Jun took her hand to study the gold ring with a pearl on it. "I can't wait until we meet up again soon!"
"Katya's boyfriend has set the bar pretty high," Jason smiled, "but Shoma has gone over that. He sent me a framed photo of us together with Toro and Emma when I last got to visit them, and then he promised that we would go out for dinner together in Japan when I next get to see him. And he promised me he would give me gifts that only he can when we get to Japan. I sent him my mother's favourite barbecue meat recipes as his gift."
"Yes, of course he'd love that," Yuzuru rolled his eyes. "Gremlin."
"Oh shut up," Jason pouted playfully and he gave Yuzuru's shoulder a light shove before his eyes zeroed in on where Jun and Conrad weren't paying the slightest bit of attention and were instead exchanging kisses and giggles. "What did you two do then?"
"Well," Conrad messed up the back of Jun's hair to make him giggle, "he came over to mine and we took Buttons for a walk together, just around the city. And then we had lunch in this cute little Italian restaurant!"
"And then we got boba and went back to Conrad's to exchange gifts. I got him a signed Shawn Mendes poster, and he somehow got me some Chunga clear files! I have no idea how he managed to get them but he did! He's amazing!"
"And then we had dinner at my place and cuddled on the coach and watched Les Mis."
"I like it!" Jun defended as a blush rose up onto his cheeks. "And we watched Romeo and Juliet after as well."
"They acted out Romeo and Juliet with the film as a backdrop," Amelia commented as she left her dance class to duck into the break room and fill up her water bottle, making both boys splutter to defend themselves.
"And then it was the first time that Jun's mum actually let him sleep over, so we cuddled in my room and I got to wake up with Jun's head on my shoulder this morning." Conrad's cheeks flushed pink as he described it but he went to plant a kiss on Jun's forehead. "It was the best day ever. No one can beat it."
"Wait a minute," Javier held up a hand. "We haven't heard from the OG Cricket Club couple yet: Yuzuvier. Yuzu, how was our day?"
"Oh it was perfect!" Yuzu turned all blushy, like he was a teenager again, and sighed as he leaned his head on Javier's shoulder. "First of all, I made him breakfast in bed and we cuddled while eating and snuggled with Effie-chan between us and we thought it would be amazing to wake up with each other forever. And then we got up and went to the science museum and had lunch there too! And then we had lunch in this cute little restaurant together and then Javi took me to an open air rink! And it started to snow and the rink cleared of people so Javi and I," he sighed, fiddling with his wings necklace, "did our exercises like we always did. And it was the easiest thing in the world and felt like the best thing ever. Like... everything was perfect, you know?"
Javier smiled, tucking Yuzuru's head under his neck so that his blushing cheeks could be hidden in the Japanese man's hair. He pressed a kiss to the crown of his head as Yuzuru kept talking.
"And then Javi encouraged me to skate to something, take advantage of the empty rink and just have fun. And with the snow falling around, I skated to Notte Stellata. And then, when I finished," he held up his hand, "Javi proposed! On the ice with all the beautiful snow falling around us!"
"Congratulations!" Tracy smiled at the pair of them with the kindest maternal smile. "You're absolutely meant to be with each other and you'll be the perfect couple."
"That does sound like a pretty amazing Valentine's Day," Jun took Yuzuru's hand and admired the gold ring with three diamonds set into it. "This is beautiful!"
"Well hold up, hold up," Ghislain pointed at Brian, "We've not heard from the Orser family yet. How was your Valentine's day?"
"I don't know if anything could really top getting engaged," Javier argued but Brian just smiled.
"Raj and I took an impromptu date. We got up early and went to Niagra Falls together. It's something we've always wanted to do and we finally went on them together. And then we cooked dinner together, like we always do on Valentine's Day, before we exchanged jars in the evening. It's our tradition."
"Exchange jars?" Jun tilted his head to one side. "Like, you have jars of jam? Or peanut butter?"
"No no, through the course of the year, Raj and I write down the nicest things we nicest about each other and turn them into little paper stars. Then we fill up a jar each over the course of the year. Then, on Valentine's Day, we open them up together after dinner and read through them. We remember that it's the little things about each other that are some of the biggest and best things. Something beautiful, small, and even simple to one of us can be one of the most beautiful things in the other's world, and we like to remind each other of that once a year. So we exchanged our paper stars and then watched a film together before we headed to bed."
There was a little silence between the students that Javier was the first to break.
"That's quite possibly the sweetest thing I've ever heard. And I heard the sweet and sappy thing I wrote for Yuzuru to propose to him."
"That's adorable," Jun squeezed Conrad's hand and looked up at him. "I want to do that with you. I want to learn all your cute habits. I want to write them all down on paper stars and give them to you. And I want to grow old like that with you."
"So I think Brian wins best Valentine's Day," Tracy finished off her coffee and set her wisteria mug down. "Training time?"
The students all nodded, picking themselves up as they filed down the corridor when Brian paused.
"Wait a second! Jun Hwan Cha! I am not old!"